DESCRIPTION (from application?s abstract): The goal of the Boston University Hearing Research Center Engineering Core is to provide our research laboratories with technical support in the areas of computers so as to improve research efficiency and facilitate collaboration. All of our laboratories are highly dependent on computers and associated electronics for stimulus generation and data collection. At present, a considerable amount of time is spent by the principal investigators and their students on systems maintenance, programming as well as on computer and electronic hardware repair, maintenance, and calibration. In some cases, there is also a need for the design and construction of specialized electronic devices. We also have a need to increase data and technique sharing among our laboratories as well as to facilitate the integration of computational models across laboratories. The complexity of our software and hardware systems has reached the point we can no longer expect that our researchers will be able to acquire the skills needed to perform all of these needed technical activities. We propose to create a centralized engineering and technical support facility that will be staffed by a software engineer and by an electronics engineer. These staff will support all of the Center?s research laboratories with computer systems management, laboratory data-management systems, websites, and electronic design, construction, and repair. They will assist us to standardize data formats and analysis tools used within the center and to create a center Intranet that will be used to improve inter-laboratory collaboration.